Saturday, March 24, 2012

For project space, my group and I decided to focus on parks. Each one of us chose a park and we had to describe our findings of the place. The park I decided to write about is Runyon Canyon Park. I went to the park on Monday afternoon, around 6 pm, when the sun was about to set. My observations of this park is that is consider more of a "hike" and "dog" park. People take their dogs for a little walk. A lot of people seem to go to the park at that time since the sun is going down and it's not as hot. There's more women than men and they're mostly white people. People who go there seem to be very active and they usually go accompanied by friends. What I found interesting about this place is that people who go there are people who are in shape and seem familiar with the place. People seem to be more friendly than people you encounter on the streets or any other place on a daily basis. People enjoyed watching the sunset and the city at night. I honestly think people go to places like these to get their minds off of frustrating things like work, home, etc.

Monday, March 5, 2012

My
group and I decided to explore the Botanic Garden which is located right next
to the Chaparal Hall. The reason why we chose to visit the Botanic Garden was
because it looks like a good place to relax, reflect and admire the
surroundings. We got there around 10 in the morning. As we made our way through
the little trail there was, we noticed that there was no one around but us but
our guess was that it was too early for anyone to be there.

We
continued to the trail but it was soon over so we decided to go out of our way
and we found ourselves in a little Green House. We decided to take a look
inside. There were two ladies working there and we asked them if we could go
inside to take a look at the plants. They agreed to let us in. There were three
little rooms full of plants and flowers. As soon as we stepped inside the
rooms, we felt the humidity. They kept this temperature for the plants. Each
plant and flower had their own description. There were dozens of different
plants and flowers around.

I
like the fact that students can come and learn about different plants and
flowers and admire the surroundings that the garden has to offer them. I think
that the garden serves a good purpose to the students. When the students feel
frustrated, they can just go to the garden, take a little walk to clear their
mind. There are also benches where they can sit and admire the atmosphere. By
going to the greenhouse they will also be learning. Besides being a place to
relax, it is also a place to learn new things about our community and school.

In this essay I will be
addressing question number 4 which explores the gender roles in both the
“Gamer” and/or “The Surrogates”. I would first address the movie “Gamer” and
how women are viewed and used. I would also go deeper into this topic and
address why people use avatars to interact with each other instead of
themselves. I would also explore the reason why people also choose to be
different genders when they are using their avatar form. After explaining the
movie “Gamer” I would then proceed to explain the book “The Surrogates” and how
it explores gender role. I would then proceed to compare how similar both
“Gamer” and “The Surrogates” are.

The
movie “Gamer” deals with people who are wealthy and use avatars to do things
they don’t usually would do themselves. Video games play a big part in this
movie since everyone who is wealthy spend most their free time playing them.
One of the public’s favorite games is “Society”. “Society” allows the player to
control a real person and make them do whatever they desire. The “characters”
of this game, are usually poor people and they do this as a job.

In this movie, women
are usually viewed as inferior to men. For example, in the game “Society”, men
usually decide to play a woman avatar and make her do nasty things. They dress
them with not much clothing and make them hurt themselves or do things women
usually wouldn’t do on their right minds. They also make them have sex with
women and men. Women are view as a sex symbol and people who usually play women
use them for that, sex. Also, when the avatar gets hurt, the player doesn’t
feel the pain, only the avatar. The person playing the avatar feels the pain
but it’s not in the right mind to process what is going on therefore can’t
control it.

I
think that the movie also projects how anti-social people really are. They
prefer to interact with each other through avatars instead of actually meeting
each other in real life. Are people really scared of how another person is
going to think of them? Obviously they are, because another factor I also
noticed throughout the movie is that every avatar is beautiful. They fit the
standards of “society”. Usually the people controlling the avatar are the
completely the opposite. People are so scared of what “society” would think
about them that they rather hide behind a computer and pretend to be someone
else.

Another
factor that also plays a big part in gender roles is the fact that people want
to feel beautiful. Society sets “standards” that everyone has to fit in order
to be socially acceptable in society. That is one of the main reasons why
people use women as sex toys. Women have to be beautiful in order for people to
like them. When men choose to play a woman, they choose someone who is sexy,
not someone who is not consider to be “beautiful” by society’s standards. Every
avatar woman you see on the game is beautiful. This video game called “Society”
had become part of people’s lives.

Another
interesting article that also focuses on gender role is the book “The
Surrogates”. In the book “The Surrogates” people also use their avatars to do
what they would normally do in their daily routines. People have gotten so used
to use their avatars all the time that they have completely forgotten what is
like to interact with real people. One of the main characters in this series is
Victor/Victoria. He is the creator of the avatars yet he also wants to destroy
them. He takes a double identity, as a woman and a man. It seems like being a
man didn’t satisfy his needs therefore he decided to create a female image of
himself.

The
movie “Gamer” and the book “The Surrogates” have a lot of factors that make
them similar. They both address how people seem to rely on their avatars to do
things they would not normally do. In both articles, women are portrayed as the
weak “sex” and are used as sex icons. Men also seemed to play women’s roles
when using avatars. Seems like they prefer to do “bad” things when using a
woman that way their reputation does not get ruin. Both articles portrayed
women in a bad way.

In
my opinion, after watching the movie “Gamer” and read “The Surrogates” what I
got from both articles is that people seem to hide who they really are behind
these “machines” because they are too afraid to be themselves. “Society” makes
people believe that they can be happier if they play their game. Using other
people in order to be happier with their own life sounds like a much more
interesting way to enjoy life. Instead of improving their own life, people
choose to live a different life.

I feel like this should apply in “real” life. These are
just a few of great examples of how people actually view themselves. Although
things have changed a bit about how women are portrayed, that doesn’t mean that
society doesn’t still view them that way. Women feel like they still have to
impress society and they want to feel “socially” acceptable in every way
possible that they would change their image and the way they act in order to
fit in. Men also feel like they have to follow certain standards to keep being
on top. But what they don’t understand is that they are society. They set their
own standards and even though they don’t agree with them, they don’t do anything
to change them because they are afraid of change and the fact that someone
might disagree with them. If they would only express how they feel, they would
all understand that everyone is on the same page and maybe instead of hiding
behind avatars, they would interact with each other and create a better
society.